It appears local debate around data centers may be coming to a head on Tuesday, June 9. Last week, the South Hutchinson City Council approved a one-year moratorium on data center development, and both the City of Hutchinson and Reno County are considering taking action soon.
During a recent study session, the Reno County Commission scheduled an agenda item about data centers for its meeting on June 9 (a day earlier than usual). The commission could leave the current rules in place, under which a data center in the zoned portion of the county—roughly the eastern third—would need a conditional use permit.
A conditional use permit requires a public hearing, where residents can speak their minds, followed by approval from the Reno County Planning Commission and Reno County Commission. As the name suggests, a conditional use permit can also have conditions attached to it.
Alternatively, commissioners could establish a moratorium like South Hutchinson’s to give the county planning commission time to study the issue and propose long-term regulations. It even sounds like an outright ban in the unincorporated portions of the county is on the table, which could include the unzoned part of the county.
At the latest Hutchinson Planning Commission, commissioners heard that they would be asked to require conditional use permits for data centers, possibly as soon as their June 9 meeting. As with the county’s current process, that would create a requirement for a public hearing and two layers of approvals for any data center in the city. However, that proposal is meant as a temporary measure—an alternative to a moratorium while the city studies and develops more permanent rules.
So long as decision-makers are open to data center development, requiring a conditional use permit is a practical approach, not just as an interim measure but as a long-term standard. It would make every data center subject to a public hearing and would allow conditions to be tailored to the specifics of the proposal: where is the proposed site, what is it in proximity to, how big, how loud? Planning officials would do well to develop a list of standard conditions—a starting point to ensure that the basics are always covered.
On the other hand, if decision-makers are set against data center development, it does nobody any favors to pretend otherwise. Theoretically, allowing data centers with a conditional use permit wastes developers’, employees’ and the public’s time if a jurisdiction would never grant such a permit. A ban would be more transparent and honest, and if a future governing body feels differently, it can rescind a ban.
We ask both the Hutchinson City Council and county commission to listen to its constituents’ concerns while balancing what is best for the environmental and financial future of Reno County, while putting the former first. County Commissioner Don Bogner, at the May 27 commission meeting, said, “All the money in the world is useless if you can’t live in the world you created.” We at The Tribune agree with this.
This discussion around data centers has also brought together groups of people who otherwise disagree on nearly every other political issue. Conservatives concerned with land use and the well-being of agricultural practices agree with even the most left-leaning thinkers, who are concerned with continued handouts to ultra-wealthy individuals for development. The common denominator of both left and right, in this case, is wealth.
We hope this issue continues honest and open discussion between those who disagree politically, where the people demand public scrutiny and transparency for any proposed data center development and its benefits and drawbacks.
Mo Brings Plenty, most famous from the TV Series “Yellowstone,” is also a resident of Miami County in the northeast sector of the state. Plenty spoke at the Osawatomie City Council meeting against a proposed data center in that county. Plenty spoke to the council while flanked by an audience packed into a local gymnasium. During his comments, he spoke about the importance of clean air and water. He then held up his cell phone and said, “The day this phone can download drinkable water for me, provide breathable air for me and provide a healthy meal, through an app, is the day I’ll worship this phone.”
Whether and under what conditions to allow data centers aren’t the entirety of the question around data centers. There is also the question of incentives for developers. Cities and counties have access to an array of tools to incentivize economic development, from property and sales tax abatements to job creation incentive payments to waivers of permit and utility connection fees.
Cities and counties should leave those tools in the toolbox when it comes to data centers. If data centers really are the future of the economy, they don’t need that help and should pay their own way. That money is better spent balancing local budgets.
– The Hutchinson Tribune Editorial Board